Vegetables are of great importance in the diet of the Saudi consumer who is constantly looking for new foods, healthier vegetables, and agricultural products suitable for allergy sufferers. Therefore, their import is subject to strict regulations to ensure that consumer lives are not endangered.
If you work in vegetable import, you must be careful not to fall into common mistakes and follow the appropriate guidelines to grow your trade and maximize your sales in this difficult and complex economic activity. Therefore, in this article, we highlight the most common mistakes in the vegetable customs clearance process and help you understand how to avoid them.
1. Absence of Vegetable Import Permit
Vegetables are among the products that require a license to be imported into the Kingdom. Therefore, if you skip this step or delay taking it, it will inevitably lead to your shipment being held up at the arrival airport and the customs department at the airport will not release it. For this reason, as soon as you decide on the types of vegetables you are importing into Saudi Arabia, you must start working to obtain a vegetable import permit. The NAMA service provided by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is the service responsible for granting investors a license to import vegetables from outside the Kingdom.
You can apply for a vegetable import permit here without paying any fees. Your application usually takes 3 days to be considered for either acceptance or rejection. The service divides importers into two categories:
● Category A: Importers who have a title deed or lease contract for the warehouses where the cargo is unloaded, a cooling refrigerator, sales outlets, transportation means, and distribution points.
● Category B: Importers who have a title deed or lease contract for the warehouses where the cargo is unloaded and a cooling refrigerator.
According to this classification, Category A importers obtain an import license for a longer period before needing to renew it. The investor should attach authenticated contracts with commercial centers or distributors in the Kingdom to supply shipments directly to them, in addition to a statement of refrigerated transportation means that ensure the transportation of vegetables at an ideal temperature, which guarantees their protection from rot and damage, and their arrival to the buyer in a fresh condition.
Among the important considerations while planning to obtain a vegetable import permit is to obtain it early enough before the shipment arrives. Its issuance date should be at least 24 hours before the arrival date of the products. Also, care should be taken when writing the specified port in the application, as it will be the port through which you must commit to entering the shipment.
2. Ignoring Attention to Vegetable Import Precautions
Vegetables fall under food products, which is a category of products surrounded by many risks during import. Therefore, the importer must be aware of all details related to the vegetables they are importing before starting the import process. Among these details are the following:
● What types of vegetables are being imported?
● What quantities are being imported?
● What packaging materials are used to package the products before and during shipping?
● What potential risks can threaten the safety of vegetables during their journey from the farm to the destination airport?
● Where do these vegetables come from?
● Do the vegetables need to undergo a treatment process after arriving in the Kingdom?
Knowing these answers helps in planning ahead for any risks or obstacles that may occur. For example, if regulations prohibit import from a specific area, you will be careful to contract with a supplier from another area that is not prohibited from importing from, thus ensuring the smooth and rapid completion of the vegetable customs clearance process.
3. Ignorance of the GCC Agricultural Quarantine Law
The Agricultural Quarantine Law aims to prevent the entry and spread of agricultural pests and protect the environment. A pest is a plant or animal strain or a pathogen or harmful agent to vegetables. If you, as an importer, violate the provisions of this law, you expose yourself to punishment and prevent the completion of the customs clearance procedures for the vegetables you import. Therefore, every vegetable importer needs to fully understand the provisions of the law related to the import of agricultural products.
For example, the law requires attaching a phytosanitary certificate with imported vegetable shipments from abroad, and this certificate is issued by the exporting country. The law also obliges the importer to declare all plants subject to inspection regulations immediately upon their arrival at the local airport. Also, the transport container must be tightly sealed as a procedural condition before inspection. In addition to the above, the shipment must be free of pests listed in the agricultural quarantine pest lists in the Kingdom. Understanding the agricultural quarantine law does not expedite customs clearance procedures, but rather alerts the importer to prepare for dealing with emergencies as well. For example, the inspection authority at the airport may find that the shipment poses a threat of introducing an agricultural pest into the country. In this case, the law stipulates that the importer must take one of these measures within a week:
– Treating the vegetables to remove the risks.
– Returning the imported products to their origin or any other country.
– Destroying the imported materials.
Finally, in the previous list, we focused on errors related specifically to the customs clearance process for vegetables, as an independent framework of licenses and laws regulating their import has been established for this category of products with attention. It has become clear to what extent this trade is fraught with complexities that require good coordination and prior planning to protect the importer from incurring significant losses in products.
With Border Support Company for Customs Clearance, specializing in time-sensitive products such as vegetables, you will ensure a safe and fast passage for your vegetable shipment through customs authorities, with the help of a team of experts who take care of all the details of the customs clearance process for you. Contact us now.
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